Gulf authors celebrate publication of unique academic journal

Authors from across the Gulf region, Iraq and Yemen celebrated the announcement of the journal at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Abu Dhabi last night.

Also present were the Editor in Chief of the journal, Professor Lee Harvey, the Special Issue Editor, Professor Vaneeta D'Andrea and Dr Stephen Jackson from the UK's Quality Assurance Agency.

The ground-breaking journal is the first of its kind and provides an excellent opportunity for Arab countries to take stock of their progress in higher education - and to share this with colleagues from around the world. The journal also documents the role played by the British Council in supporting quality assurance activities through its Excellence in Higher Education project.

The publication reports actions being taken to improve the quality of higher education in the Middle East, both at a national level and within higher education institutions.

Alison Devine, the British Council's Regional Education UK Manager, says:

"Quality assurance and enhancement are becoming increasingly important for higher education institutions and education ministries because students need an education that equips them for the rapidly changing workplace, which requires knowing more than just content. Graduates have to be creative and find ways of solving the problems that face them on a daily basis."

"For economies to thrive and grow, students leaving universities and colleges need to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the challenges of a knowledge-based economy," Devine adds.

The journal highlights the similarities between the different countries in the region, many of which have relatively young education systems and large populations of young people needing education. In many countries, the gap has been filled by the private sector, raising questions of quality assurance and accreditation.

This journal provides an "...extremely valuable snapshot of current quality assurance activities in what is a rapidly changing higher education environment here in the GCC," said Dr Hamed Hashim Al Dhahab, Chairperson of the Board of the Oman Accreditation Council.

The launch coincides with the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) conference being held in Abu Dhabi from 30th March - 2nd April. The journal has been distributed to all delegates and supports the aims of the conference New Approaches to Quality Assurance in the Changing World of Higher Education, which are to reflect on and to share quality assurance developments that have taken place over the past two decades. The journal is also being translated into Arabic to ensure that the key messages in the articles are made available across the Arabic-speaking world.